Ohio Graduation Tests: Cincinnati Takes Another Look At Scores

Last week, a member of the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education asked state education officials to take a look into scores from the Ohio Graduation Test administered last spring at Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School on the west side.

This is the second time that an unusually high number of erasures and corrected answers on the multiple-choice portions of the 2006 OGT have drawn inquiries at the school. District officials looked into the matter earlier and found no concrete evidence of cheating.

The company that grades the OGT first raised a red flag, noting that about 30 percent of the multiple-choice answers on the 2006 OGT were erased, changing wrong answers to right ones.

Taft High has been in the spotlight in regards to the Ohio Graduation Test since employees of Cicinnati Bell began tutoring students there in a concentrated effort to better test scores. The effort worked and last spring's scores showed marked improvement over previous years. But was it all on the up and up?

Cincinnati Public School officials argue the erasures and changes on the OGT are all part of smarter test-taking strategies on the part of students. Students were told to fill in all answers - even if they had to guess - instead of leaving some blank. They were also told to return and re-think questions where they were uncertain about the answers.

Taft High School Principal Anthony Smith is confident there was no cheating involved and has suggested students re-take the OGT in order to prove their integrity.